INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS
The Decent Work Agenda and Achieving the
M i l l e n n i u m D e v e l o p me n t Go a l s
A Background Paper
Trade Union Seminar, New York 12 September, 2005
INTRODUCTION
At the Millennium Summit of the UN General Assembly in September 2000, 189 Member States
adopted the Millennium Declaration, a set of Commitments aimed at providing an international
development agenda for the 21st Century. Subsequently, these commitments were codified into a set
of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and eighteen specific time-bound targets all aimed
at attaining important development objectives by 2015: to eradicate poverty and hunger, to achieve
universal primary education and gender equality, to significantly reduce maternal and child mortality,
to combat HIV/AIDS ensure environmental sustainability, and to promote a global partnership for
development. With preparations underway for a major “plus five” review of progress in achieving the
MDGs at the forthcoming 2005 World Summit, trade unions are themselves taking stock, determined
to hold their governments accountable for the commitments they made in 2000. Trade unions have
noted with dismay the admission made by the Secretary General in his report ”In Larger Freedom,”
that although progress has been made in many areas, a large number of countries will not be on
track for achieving the MDGs unless actions are drastically increased within the next twelve
months. [1, pg.14]. Trade unions have concluded that the policy dialogue and interventions to date
have failed to place sufficient emphasis on the decent work agenda [2, pgs 2-4]. They are convinced
that there is little prospect for the attainment of the eight MDGS if this critical policy deficit is not
overcome.
Policy measures must be formulated with the objective of tackling the root causes of poverty. A
starting point must be the realization of the centrality of decent work to poverty eradication. It should
be recognized that poverty is multidimensional, and that many of its dimensions relate to the world of
work. People are poor because they are deprived of the means to lift themselves out of poverty and
enjoy a decent quality of life in larger freedom. They lack stable, predictable, adequate incomes, safe
working conditions, access to supporting resources such as land, credit, skills-training to improve
income-generating opportunities and productivity. They suffer discrimination and social exclusion,
and are denied the rights to organize to improve their bargaining power and gain security and
protections within labour markets. They lack the means to provide essential services such as health
and education for their families, and are constrained to place their children in work to supplement
family incomes that are below the poverty line. They are thus caught up in a cycle of intergenerational
poverty, the dimensions of which are profoundly related to the world of work. And yet, the Decent
Work Agenda has not been given adequate attention in the policy dialogue and preparatory process
for the 2005 World Summit.
This discussion paper highlights the need to adopt the Decent Work Agenda as a policy framework
capable of addressing the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and providing a number of important
policy perspectives and tools critical to the achievement of significant reductions in poverty. Without
the systematic incorporation of this Agenda into macro-economic policies at global and national
levels, achievement of the MDG targets will continue to elude the international community.
THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
At the 89th International Labour Conference in June 1999, the ILO launched its Decent Work
agenda, centered around four strategic objectives :[3]
1 To achieve fundamental principles and rights at work
2 To promote greater employment and income opportunities for both women and men
3 To aid in extending social protection
4 To promote social dialogue
The ILO’s 2003 Report “Working out of Poverty” [4] served to underscore the linkage with the
MDGs by concluding that decent work was both an end in itself, and a means to achieving the goal of
poverty reduction. Trade unions are convinced that the Decent Work Agenda provides both an
overarching framework and a set of mechanisms and strategies to achieve “a fair globalization” with
robust wealth and income distributive mechanisms. With its four-tier definition, it focuses, not just on
economic growth, but on employment and pro-poor growth, and on resource transfers to the poor
through social protections and promotion of basic rights, including freedom of association and
collective bargaining, that could enable the poor to organize and bargain collectively to attain
adequate incomes and decent conditions of work. It also stresses social dialogue and participation
through representative workers’ organizations, thereby empowering workers in poor communities to
be involved in development policies affecting their lives and livelihoods.
550 million people in the world today are classified as the working poor earning less than USD $1 per
day. Three quarters of these are to be found in rural areas. Understanding the dynamics of the rural
poverty trap is key to the formulation of poverty eradication policies based on the decent work
agenda. A large proportion of those described by the ILO as the working poor are engaged in informal
and unprotected work in urban areas. Women comprise about 60% overall of the working poor, and
are disproportionately affected by the factors causing and exacerbating poverty. 88 million young
people (aged 15-24) are out of work, making up 47% of the unemployed in the world’s labour force.
Increasingly, children are to be found in hazardous working conditions in both the rural and urban
informal economy. Once again, all of these sectoral, gender and intergenerational dimensions of
poverty must be addressed in a comprehensive set of strategies based on the decent work agenda.
450 million agricultural workers are in waged employment, many on large-scale commercial farms
growing tea, cocoa, coffee, sugar-cane, bananas. In the current global trading environment with
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unfavourable prices and terms of commodity trade, many of these sectors are in crisis, and are
restructuring. Workers are threatened with job insecurity, facing the threat of lay-offs, in addition to
low wages. The agricultural sector is characterized by hazardous working conditions. Workers are
injured or killed by accidents involving agricultural machinery, or poisoned by pesticides and other
agro-chemicals. The ILO has estimated that 170,000 agricultural workers are killed each year.
Where workers are small farmers and own-account workers, they are also faced with the uncertainties
of unpredictable markets and prices, lack proper agricultural support which could raise productivity,
and in some areas, are subject to severe climactic conditions, drought, and crop failures. This is
currently the case for Niger and other countries of the Sahel region plagued by drought, tremendous
food insecurity and famine.
Hundreds of thousands of urban informal workers provide retail and other services to poor
communities, and earn meagre incomes. They work as street vendors, or home workers doing
weaving and garment making, a large proportion of these being women. They are artisans, jeepney
and mini-bus drivers, or they operate waste disposal services. There is virtually no social protection
against loss of income, and little or no health care coverage. The lack of adequate application of basic
labour legislation to regulate much work in the rural or urban economy means that these workers are
unprotected and denied their basic workers’ rights such as representation at work.
There must be recognition that among the good governance deficits adversely affecting development
are those that relate to labour markets and the world of work. Poverty cannot be adequately addressed
unless marginalised workers and small economic units are brought into the economic and social
mainstream. The performance of work, as with other economic and financial activity, must be within
a legal and institutional framework. All work, and especially that performed on a basis of
subordination and dependency, must be based on recognised relationships where rights can be
enforced. The development agenda must be linked to ILO technological cooperation with respect for
the formulation and application of labour and social protection legislation.
Organizing in the Informal Economy
At the global level, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and global union
federations such as the International Federation of Food, Tobacco, Agriculture and Allied Workers
(IUF), the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and the
International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW), are committed to supporting and
organizing workers in the informal economy. They have put in place resolutions, projects and
campaigns to support this commitment. For example, ICFTU launched a campaign
on International Women’s Day 2002, Unions for Women, Women for Unions, that focuses on
organizing women in the informal economy and Export Processing Zones (EPZs). This
campaign resulted for example in the increase of the number of women members of
CGTM Mauritania by 30 per cent over a period of six months.
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES AND STRATEGIES UNDERLYING THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
Employment intensive approaches to job creation
At the national level, governments need to place special emphasis on employment-intensive
approaches to job creation in areas such as infrastructure, including road construction and
maintenance to bring rural produce to markets, affordable housing, and public works schemes. Such
schemes will result in income transfers to the poor through job-creation, increased market
opportunities for local produce, and improved shelter, thereby contributing to securing decent
livelihoods. Employment-intensive approaches to job creation have the merit of adopting a targeted
approach which delivers jobs and services to the poor, and adopts measures aimed at stimulating the
local economy. For example, infrastructure projects should use appropriate procurement procedures to
ensure the targeting of socially responsible local entrepreneurship for the supply of inputs, and the
contracting of attendant services within the community, thereby maximizing local job creation.They
should be coupled with longer-term strategies to stimulate the productive base of local economies and
overcome supply-side constraints: lack of skills development and credit for small-scale enterprises.
By focusing on income transfers to the poor, pro-poor growth strategies can succeed in attacking
poverty on multiple fronts, and by the same token contribute to the attainment of many of the
MDGs. Increased incomes enable people to increase consumption and improve their standard of
living. By improving purchasing power and consumption, increased incomes stimulate production
and help to introduce a virtuous cycle of growth with equity (MDG 8). Given adequate levels of
family income through adults’ work, child labour would be diminished, enabling more children to
go to school, including girl children who tend otherwise to register higher school drop-out rates than
boys in many developing countries. (MDG 2 and 3). Health is also a function of income. Not only
will disease prevention improve with increased consumption of foods high in nutritional value, but
access to affordable medications will improve the health and well-being of families. (MDGs 4 - 6)
Training and Skills Development
Lack of skills and access to training opportunities are a major constraint to escaping the poverty trap.
Unskilled workers find themselves unable to adapt to the changing demands of the world of work, and
excluded from labour markets. Alternatively, investments in skills training including entrepreneurship
and vocational skills enable people to begin working out of poverty. This operates along several
dimensions:
1. Workers are better equipped to keep up with skills-based technical change, thereby
increasing their adaptability to changing labour market demands. [5, pg.239-240]
2. The level of income received for a given job is shown to be positively correlated with the
level of human capital invested in a given worker.[4, pg.45]
3. Productivity increases are positively correlated with investments in skills development.
[5, pg.239-240]
Trade unions play a major role in supporting and managing skills training programmes both within
individual firms, or as part of broader programmes of trade union services to members. They have
been instrumental in encouraging government or employer sponsored training programmes as part of
national labour-market policy. Indeed, this is often an important area of consultation between
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governments, employers and unions, in the context of dialogue between the social partners. The ILO
and UNDP have launched a number of training initiatives, which demonstrate that skills acquisition
can lead to both improved employment opportunities and incomes. Two of these programmes have
been successfully carried out in Honduras and Cambodia. These specific programmes succeeded in
increasing the literacy rate and the average wage amongst participants.[4, pgs. 40-41]
Jobs and Training, NTUC Singapore
The NTUC Training Centre (Singapore) offers skills upgrading courses. The NTUC Skills
Development Department manages funding incentives to encourage skills-certification and lifelong
learning to ensure skills upgrading and retraining so as to achieve lifelong employability and enhance
career prospects.
The NTUC Joblink is a one-stop centre to help jobseekers in their job search. They adopt different
strategies to help job seekers seek out job opportunities, and to assist employers get the right person
for the job.
The CBT methodology (Community Based Training) used in ILO assistance programmes for skills
training has been successful in helping communities to improve their livelihoods. The starting point
is the identification of community interests, needs and potential market opportunities, and the
designing of training programmes and credit support schemes around them. Training programmes
include both vocational and managerial components, and gender dimensions are built into the
programmes. For example, training sites are in central locations close to where women live, and the
duration of learning sessions takes into account women’s need to combine training with the exercise
of family responsibilities. The programme has recorded good success rates in terms of producing
sustainable income generating activities in Cambodia, Jamaica, and the Philippines. These countries
have also incorporated the CBT methodology into their national training policies.
Community-based training in Cambodia
Working from eight provincial centers scattered around Cambodia, an ILO/UNDP project on
vocational training for the alleviation of poverty, and its predecessor project, trained 8,000 women
and men in a diverse range of skills from 1993 to 1999. Follow-up surveys over the 12 months after
completion of training showed that over 82 percent of trainees had work using their new skill and
were earning US$33 a month on average, well above the average per capita GDP of about US$22 a
month. Over half of the trainees were women and over a third were women heads of household. Many
were unskilled farm workers, often having little or no cash income prior to participating in the project.
A key to the success of this project was that it did not offer predetermined courses. Rather, the project
staff worked with the local community to find out what skills were in short supply. Then people with
the scarce skills , recruited from among those trained in the border refugee camps were asked to help
train others, but only enough to satisfy the needs of the local community . The project wanted to make
sure that trainees could make a living with their new skill, and an over-supply would lower earnings.
Source: ILO InFocus Programme on Skills, Knowledge and Employability (IFP/SKILLS)
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Supporting socially responsible entrepreneurship
Small enterprises account for a large share of employment in developing countries. Many people work
in very small enterprise units, or even one-person businesses. 60-70% of workers in the nonagricultural informal economy are self-employed. Programmes to foster socially responsible
entrepreneurship and economic viability in these undertakings should be a major focus of the decent
work agenda. Promoting local and domestic entrepreneurship has been proven to be an excellent
method for communities to empower themselves by building domestic wealth instead of firstly
looking to transnational corporations for foreign direct investment. Empirical evidence shows that
although small and medium sized enterprises are not as productive as large firms, they have the
ability to distribute wealth more evenly and increase economic growth. (See Figure 1) [6]
Figure 1: Correlation between share of employment in SMEs and GDP growth
Within the Decent Work framework, an important goal of employment policy must be to improve
both the quantity and quality as well as the productivity of employment in the small and mediumsized enterprise sector. The promotion of SMEs must be accompanied by measures to uphold labour
standards. The evidence shows that SMEs have worse records in terms of working conditions
(especially occupational health and safety) than larger firms. This deficit should be addressed
through an adequate regulatory framework for this sector, with worker rights and protections.
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Currently, much of the SME activity in the developing world, consists of running small shops,
small-scale artisanship and crafts, providing community services and agricultural ventures including
small-scale production and food-processing. Once again, a crucial factor for improving profitability
and incomes is creating better opportunities for diversification and scaling up of activities amongst
the SMEs through skills training initiatives, especially those that impart knowledge of business
management and administration. The CBT methodology should be used to identify areas for
training and support, including access to credit.
The ILO InFocus programme on ”Boosting Employment through Small Enterprise Development”
(IFP/SEED) provides an example of how the Decent Work agenda can be applied to aiding SMEs.
By offering skills training and helping entrepreneurs or small-scale community developers to build
up their own infrastructure, this programme has made some significant contributions to the creation
of sustainable livelihoods. Programmes have been successfully implemented in Tanzania, and other
East-African countries such as Kenya and Uganda have since followed suite. [4, pg.47]
This model of dynamic local entrepreneurship with external support such as that provided by the
ILO InFocus programme has great potential for the achievement of the MDGs. It allows for
increases in macroeconomic growth and the profits can be reinvested to help build wealth for the
local communities. This strategy has the potential to open up a new phase of globalization in which
there can be mutual gains for both the developed and developing worlds because active and thriving
markets will begin to form around these communities as their purchasing power increases, thus
freeing them from a continual cycle of extreme poverty. Imagine the impact this strategy could have
on the achievement of the MDGs. Small enterprises can allow the domestic workers and employers
to maintain a greater share of their product within their economy, with which they can increase
consumption, send their children to school, and provide proper health care. (MDGs 1,2,4,5,6) The
exercise of local entrepreneurship with ILO support provides an example of a constructive
partnership for development, while small, locally owned enterprises are more aware of their
countries’ needs and are in a better position to aid in domestic empowerment. (MDG 8)
MicroFinance Institutions (MFIs) and Poverty Reduction
95 % of the working poor lack access to the credit they need to maintain viable income-generating
activities. Improving the availability of credit to the poor must be a priority within the framework of
the Decent Work agenda. A number of hurdles have to be overcome. The lack of local banking
agencies providing micro-finance and asset protection in developing countries underscores the
constraints for the sustainable development of locally owned SMEs. In many cases, domestic
banking systems are reluctant to loan to the small business entrepreneur because of a lack of
tangible collateral that is protected and insured by an adequate legal system. [4, pg.49] Furthermore,
formal savings in developing countries are incredibly minute, and therefore the banks lack the
capital required for making an extensive amount of long term loans for capital production and
investment. Fortunately, the advent of the micro-finance institution (MFI) offers some hope for a
way out of this impasse.
Micro-finance institutions do not approach investment lending in the same way as the traditional
banking sector. First off, MFIs do not rely on the inflow of savings for their capital. It is raised by
using other methods such as networking with organizations like the Grameen Bank or by using
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channels within the international financial community such as CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist
the Poorest). These groups rely on other specialized instruments for underwriting loans, and rarely
require the collateral which is a pre-requisite when taking out loans in the developed world.
Since the micro-credit Summit in 1997, a great deal of progress has been made. In 1997, MFIs were
reaching 7 million poor people, while by 2001 MFIs were providing services to 27 million people.
However, much more needs to be done. Tools need to be developed to monitor and mitigate risk and
to ensure favourable concessional terms on loans, so that services could be expanded to a much larger
number of poor people. A regulatory framework must be put in place to simplify procedures for the
establishment and functioning of MFIs serving the poor.
Cooperating out of Poverty
Cooperatives provide an effective model for community centered, participatory development. They
demonstrate the fact that poor people know best how to deal with the adversities facing their
communities, and are capable of taking development into their own hands. Central to the cooperatives
concept is the pooling of community resources for sustainable development: skills, capital, knowhow, organizational capacity. Of equal importance is the equitable sharing of the benefits derived
from cooperative efforts. Many successful examples can be found, of producer, consumer and
marketing cooperatives, cereal banks (so critical to food security), credit unions, and mutual self-help
schemes. They empower local communities, and help them to overcome problems of social exclusion
and lack of access to resources for community needs. Many trade unions have set up cooperatives to
provide a range of services to their members and to local communities.
The Cooperative Movement-NTUC, Singapore
The NTUC/Singapore has built up an effective system of cooperatives. These cooperatives
are committed to keeping the prices down on a quality range of essential products and services -in
food, insurance, education, recreation, savings, health and dental care, childcare and eldercare - so as
to stretch the hard-earned dollar.
The nine cooperatives and six related organizations are owned by some 400,000 Singaporeans.
One of the primary benefits of forming cooperatives to aid in development is that they offer better
possibilities, compared to traditional firms, to balance the needs of their communities with the
economic exigencies of the market; because they are based on solidarity, and not just on
profitability. They succeed in finding the right balance between efficiency and equity, as is
manifested in the equitable income distributions which ultimately result from their efforts. A
successful example of cooperatives is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committees (BRACs)
which pool resources and knowhow to provide microfinance to local entrepreneurs. The BRACs
offer training courses, which educate men and women in business and societal skills. In addition,
they provide primary education for children, health care, legal services, and a myriad of other
services based around the collective interests of the community. BRACs are an example of how
collectives can help to combat poverty in a comprehensive manner. 3 By giving economic
empowerment to people in local communities, cooperatives support economic growth with equity. They
aid in building a local support network whereby people can attain sustainable livelihoods, thereby
paving the way for the achievement of poverty reduction. (MDG 1). In some cases they may
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provide services such as health care and primary education. (MDGs 2, 4, 5, 6).
Workplace Health and Safety
Over 2 million workers die every year of work-related diseases and accidents. A majority of these are
in developing countries, some in dangerous professions such as mining, some in agriculture with
health risks associated with the use of harmful agrochemicals, some in manufacturing and lacking
appropriate protective equipment, women in sweatshop conditions with poor ventilation and no
provision for escape in case of fire. 160 million workers per year fall ill or are injured because of
work related hazards, and nearly 90% of the people who suffer from physical adversity at work live
in the developing world. [4, pg.57] Some of the most common work related illnesses are
musculoskeletal impairments, exposure to hazardous materials, physical stress, fatigue,
psychological stress, and allergic reactions. These ailments are often caused by flaws in the working
environment such as poorly ventilated conditions, poorly lit conditions, inadequate equipment,
excessive heat, and the absence of adequate safety equipment. [4, pg.57]
Indeed, unsafe, hazardous working conditions are a dimension of poverty that must be addressed
within the context of achieving MDG1. Unsafe and unsanitary work conditions contribute to poor
health and higher mortality rates. If policy makers are concerned with the issues of health and
poverty eradication and given the fact that the MDGs have been adopted as the framework for
dealing with these issues, then they must rethink the lack of attention being paid to occupational
health and safety. Many unions have adopted Health and Safety programmes, aimed at improving
conditions at the workplace.
The Asian Workers Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Institute (OSHEI)
OSHEI is the occupational health, safety and environment agency of the Global Unions in Asia. Its
mission is to both promote sustainable industry, and improve the working conditions of workers in
Asia. Activities include training and research, thematic conferences on occupational diseases,
maintaining a network of OHSE activists engaged in campaigns and advisory services. The Institute
has trained trade union trainers and activists in Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Singapore and Indonesia.
Spearheaded by the ICFTU, unions and some national governments have begun to observe the 28th of
April as a day of commemoration for dead and injured workers. Unions plan many activities on that
day as a way of sensitizing communities to the need to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of
workers forced to work in unsafe, harmful workplaces. The relevant ILO Conventions must be
ratified and implemented by all Member states, notably the Occupational Safety and Health
Convention, 1981 [No. 155].
PROMOTING FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS AT WORK
To escape poverty, people need more than progressive policies. They need to be empowered to
participate and to be represented in the decision-making processes affecting their lives. They need
voice at work through their freely chosen representatives, the opportunity to join a union and have
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their collective bargaining rights recognized, to enjoy freedom from discrimination and forced
labour, and the opportunity to place their children at school rather than in work. These basic rights
are enshrined in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Basic Rights enshrined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
Freedom of Association

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87)

Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
The Abolition of Forced Labor

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
Equality

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
The Elimination of Child Labor

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
Combating Feminized Poverty
Women are disproportionately affected by the economic deprivation, the lack of access to resources,
and the poor integration into labour markets that are all dimensions of the poverty trap. Two
important issues to be resolved in this regard are the wage and opportunity disparities faced by
women in the formal sector. The unemployment rate of women in the formal sector of the
developing world is nearly 50% higher than that of men. Furthermore, women’s access to
opportunities for education and other socially provided services has been undermined by World
Bank-inspired economic policies of privatization and cuts in social sector spending in many
developing countries. This has shifted the costs of essential service provision from states to
households, creating great hardships for women. Precarious, unprotected, low-paid work is the lot
of the large majority of women working informally in both the agricultural and urban economies in
developing countries. Lack of access to land and credit undermines women’s ability to improve the
viability of income-generating activities. They are also more likely to work in poor conditions such
as export processing zones (EPZs) where human rights violations run rampant, and in which trade
unions cannot organize.
Overcoming these multiple discriminations involves setting and enforcing standards and social
policy at the international level, and ensuring national-level compliance. In this context, the trade
union movement fully supports the Declaration adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women
at its forty-ninth session stating that “the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action is essential to achieving the internationally agreed development goals,
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including those contained in the Millennium Declaration”. The ILO Declaration of Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work provides a framework for guaranteeing gender equality in the world
of work. It should be systematically applied in the context of the third MDG (Promote Gender
Equality and Empower Women) as an important strategy geared towards achieving this goal. A
primary objective for development policy should be to firmly establish this linkage, and use the
application of the Declaration as a benchmark or target to assess progress in meeting the third
MDG.
The ICFTU further recommends a number of measures to combat feminized poverty and promote
support for the respect of women’s fundamental human rights. These include the stepping up of
efforts to organize within Export Processing Zones (EPZs), and urging governments to ratify the
pertinent ILO Conventions enshrined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work, including Conventions 100 (Equal Remuneration) and 111 (Discrimination), as well as
Conventions 156 (Workers with Family Responsibilities), 175 (Part-Time Work), 177 (Home Work),
and 183 on Maternity Protection, and for effective follow-up to the Conclusions of the ILO
Discussion on Decent Work and the Informal Economy (2002), and to the ILO Conference
Resolution on gender equality, pay equity, and maternity protection (2004).
Poverty-reduction strategies and programmes such as skills training, and provision of micro-credit
should be designed in a gender-sensitive way, and should make sure to target women, and should
include gender-impact assessments geared to ensuring that the targets of MDG 3 are being met.
Ending Child Labour
The ILO estimates that nearly 250 million children are participating in the workforce, deprived of
education, and lacking decent health care worldwide. [3, pg.15]. Of these, 171 million are involved
in what the ILO characterizes as “the worst forms of child labour”, highly exploitative and
hazardous conditions. In order to help reach and aid these children, and in order to end child
labour, a comprehensive approach is required, one that recognizes that child labour is both a cause
and a symptom of poverty. Child labour is the thief of children. It robs them of their childhood,
their health, their education, even of their lives. Ending child labour is essential to breaking the
cycle of poverty. It must be an important objective in relation to MDGs 1, 2 and 3.
If children are denied the opportunity to acquire education and skills during their formative years,
they will be ill equipped to be productive participants in an ever more complex labour market and
will remain in poverty, thereby re-enforcing the situation of intergenerational poverty. In many
cases, the lack of adequate family income in the developing world forces families to make a choice
about whether to send their children to school or to put them to work. It is clear, then that without
making structural changes to create sustainable job opportunities for adults, efforts to end child
labour will be doomed to failure. Ending child labour is thus an integral part of the decent work
agenda. Providing children with the time to get an education is not only important for improving
their life chances and quality of life, it is also essential for achieving sustainable advances in
poverty reduction.
In support of efforts to end child labour, the ILO has adopted the International Programme for the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the ICFTU has played a major role in implementing this
programme at the local level. The programme seeks to provide educational opportunities for
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children, while reducing or if feasible eliminating the hours spent at work. It further seeks to create
income-earning opportunities for adult family members. The programme also deals with the
elimination of the worst forms of child labour such as bonded child labour, involvement of very
young children at work, and exploited female children in illicit work situations such as the sex
trade. The ICFTU has been active in seeking ratification of the ILO Convention No. 182 (The
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour), as well as the ratification of the Convention No.
138 (Minimum Working Age Convention), and these have enjoyed a high rate of ratifications
among member states. The challenge now is to ensure that the relevant provisions are incorporated
into legislation at national level, and systematically implemented.
The ILO IPEC programme continues to support governments’ efforts in this regard, and seeks to
establish partnerships with relevant UN agencies such as UNICEF and with the ICFTU, in order to
pursue serious efforts aimed at eliminating child labour. Linking these efforts to the achievement of
MDGs 1, 2 and 3 and to the decent work agenda is of critical importance.
SOCIAL PROTECTION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROVISION
Security of Incomes
Only about 10% to 25% of people in developing countries are currently covered by some sort of
insurance plan. Moreover most of these plans are limited to providing retirement income, and do not
insure against other risks of loss of earned income. [4, pg.54]. Lack of insurance against work and
life-related risks are a dimension of poverty. Workers lack protection in case of sickness, accidents,
disability, unemployment, maternity and old age. Loss of income in face of these risks can plunge
whole families into poverty. These problems are of particular concern in the current context of
globalization where economies may be subject to financial crises from volatile capital, rapid currency
devaluations, flight of transnational capital and economic restructuring. Social security schemes are
essential for providing compensation and protection to workers in face of these negative impacts on
labour markets. Trade unions are strong advocates of a progressively constructed welfare state which
aims to extend insurance coverage to a maximum of workers. They call for well-funded schemes with
the full participation of employers, and for the development of robust, progressive taxation systems
with reliable collection mechanisms. However, developing economies rarely maintain a viable tax
base and in some cases the government lacks the capacity to maintain a well-funded system based
on income and capital gains taxes. Thus, the ILO has begun consulting with over 40 different countries
on strategies to develop social and income security systems adapted to their individual situations.
Providing Quality Public Services
Lack of access to essential services such as water, sanitation, health, and education deprives poor
communities of basic needs for sustainable living, and constitutes a dimension of poverty. World
Bank-imposed conditionalities have led to the transfer of control over public services to private
providers, resulting in a deliberate erosion of national sovereignty, human rights and the quality of
people’s lives. Privatization and user fees separate those who can pay for services and those who
cannot. Both lead to deepening poverty, increased exclusion of women and children, and the
marginalization of poor communities. Trade unions affirm that these services should remain in the
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public domain and be provided as quality public services with guaranteed access by all. They
should not be transferred to the market, for-profit domain where access for the poor will not be
guaranteed. (MDG 2, 3, 4, 6,7).
MDG8 – TOWARDS A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO PROMOTE THE DECENT WORK
AGENDA
In MDG8, governments of industrialized and developing countries agreed to forge a global
partnership for development, including focusing on increased and effective aid, substantial debt
relief, and fair trade. The articulation of this goal and accompanying targets reveal a recognition of
the need for an enabling global environment for development. This implies that the global rules
governing finance and trade should support and not undermine national development efforts and
economic sectors. And yet there is a tremendous lack of coherence between global trade rules and
national development objectives. Nowhere is this incoherence more starkly manifested than in the
dismantling of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) on 1 January 2005, ending its
guaranteed quotas for textile imports to the USA and Europe from a large number of developing
countries. The effects of this WTO decision promise to be devastating for the textile and garment
sectors of many developing countries, destroying a sector which accounts for a significant portion
of export earnings, and which employs a sizeable work force. Countries such as Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Honduras, and Haiti have already lost
tens of thousands of jobs, and as orders dry up to the benefit of China, they are set to lose tens of
thousands more over the coming months.
The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) has sounded the
alarm. The textile and clothing industry has dominated the economies of a whole range of nations:
Lesotho, for instance, relies on the sector for 99.14% of its export earnings; Bangladesh for 94%;
Haiti for 88%; Cambodia for 86%; Pakistan for 75%; Honduras for 75% and Sri Lanka for 63%. In
all of these countries the textile and clothing industry is the only source of manufacturing
employment. The ITGLWF goes so far as to say that by killing the industry, the WTO-implemented
agreement is in effect killing the economies of these nations, and by extension, plunging millions of
people into poverty. It is clear, then, that it is counterproductive to focus on achieving the MDGs at
national level without addressing the global rules which totally undermine national efforts and destroy
the productive basis of national economies.
The international community must rally around the trade union call that MDG8 must become a global
partnership to promote the decent work agenda. The Global trade rules of the WTO must not impede
such an agenda. In the short-term, the ITGLWF is calling for safeguard mechanisms to keep the
preferential system in place and arrest the decline of the textile and clothing industry. Over the longerterm procedures must be put in place which front-load social and labour impact assessments of WTO
rules. The conclusions of the ILO’s Fair Globalization Report are instructive in this regard. [7]. The
Report concludes that “the multilateral system is under-performing in terms of ensuring coherence
among economic, financial, trade, environmental and social policies to promote human development
and social progress. “ [7, pg. 134] and recommends the establishment of Policy Coherence Initiatives
(PCIs). These should include reviews of the policies of the WTO, and their implications for decent
work, gender equality, social service provision and sustainable development. The ILO and other
agencies of the UN with a social policy mandate such as UNDP and UNIFEM, should be fully
involved in these PCI reviews, and consultations with the social partners (representatives of
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employers and trade unions) should be part of the process. The textile sector and social services
should be on a priority list for PCI reviews. In the spirit of MDG 8, PCIs should evolve into a
veritable partnership for coherent policy action, involving collaborative and integrated approaches
between key actors from the multilateral system, the public, private and civil society sectors,
including trade unions.
POMOTING SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND BUILDING ALLIANCES
Engaging in dialogue between the social partners on labour market and social policy issues is an
important aspect of the Decent Work agenda. There exists a rich diversity of institutional
arrangements, legal frameworks, traditions and practices of social dialogue around the world. But
whatever the form it may take, social dialogue is a key instrument for reducing poverty and achieving
the MDGs, for three main reasons:
First, social dialogue has the potential to create the necessary space for relevant social actors to reach
national agreements and agree upon consensus approaches. In fact, attempts to emerge from poverty
are more likely to succeed when they have the full commitment of the entire society, including
workers, employers and their organizations. Social dialogue offers a meaningful framework for
building broad national socio-economic consensus on development strategy.
Second, successful social dialogue structures and processes promote better living and working
conditions as well as social justice. They provide workers with a guaranteed way of being protected
and having their interests advanced. Because it ensures better income distribution, social protection
measures for the poor and pro-poor national budgets, social dialogue is an essential instrument to
reduce inequalities within society. In addition, social dialogue may also have a strong effect on the
supply side: By giving workers a voice in the production process, it has the potential to make the
economy more performing and more competitive.
Third, social dialogue is an instrument of good governance. Beyond the fact that it may significantly
contribute to social peace as well as conflict prevention and resolution, social dialogue is a
democracy-building process in itself. It has the potential to enhance transparency, accountability and
combat corruption at country level. Social dialogue can make an important contribution in ensuring
popular participation in public policy, an essential building block of meaningful democracy.
In relation to the MDGs social dialogue provides an avenue for monitoring progress and a way of
holding all actors accountable to their commitments and responsibilities. It facilitates stable,
predictable industrial relations, and serves to avoid the kinds of labour market failures that could
result in social disruptions that threaten social stability. Trade unions are active at many levels to
ensure that the decent work agenda is mainstreamed into policies and programs for achieving the
MDGs: at the workplace through defence of workers’ basic rights; in consultative processes at
national and global levels for policy-making with a social dimension and based on the observance
of fundamental workers’ rights; through outreach and support to the unorganized in the rural and
urban informal economies; through building alliances with broader social movements such as
GCAP where the ICFTU is a co-founding member. In joining its efforts with GCAP, the ICFTU aims
to make a decisive difference in 2005 towards the objectives of tackling world poverty through
increased aid, debt relief, trade justice, the decent work agenda and better governance, including full
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respect for trade union and other human rights.
Because it has the potential to resolve important economic and social issues, encourage good
governance, advance social and industrial peace and stability and boost economic progress, social
dialogue is both a means and an end in the quest for poverty reduction.
CONCLUSIONS
The analysis in this Background Paper serves to demonstrate how profoundly the multiple
dimensions of poverty are related to the world of work, and how critically important it is to
incorporate the strategies and tools of the Decent Work Agenda into a policy framework for
eradicating poverty and achieving the MDGs. It is imperative that governments, policy-makers and
all relevant actors heed the trade union call to place the Decent Work Agenda at the heart of efforts
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
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4 Appendix A - The Millenium Development Goals
1. Eradicate Poverty and Hunger
 Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one
dollar a day
 Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
 Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling.
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
 Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and
at all levels of education no later than 2015
4. Reduce Child Mortality
• Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality
rate 5. Improve Maternal Health
• Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
 Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Have halted and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major
diseases 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
 Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and
programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
 Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation
• Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slumdwellers 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development
 Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and
financial system
 Address the special needs of the least developed countries
 Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states
 Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national
and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
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 In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and
productive work for youth*
 In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs
in developing countries
 In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially
information and communications
References:
1. Annan, Kofi A. “In Larger Freedom“ Secretary General’s Report. United
Nations, New York, 2005
2. Global Unions/World Confederation of Labor. Statement, To the 2005 World
Summit. Brussels, 2005
3. International Labour Organization. Decent Work. ILO, Geneva, 1999.
4. International Labour Organization. Working out of Poverty. ILO, Geneva,
2003.
5. Bernanke; Ben, Abel; Andrew. Macroeconomics. Pearson-Addison Wesley,
New York, 2005
6. International Labour Organization. World Employment Report 2004-2005.
ILO, Geneva, 2005.
7. World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization – A Fair
Globalization- Creating opportunities for all. ILO publication, 2004.
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